AFTER THE ATTACKS: NATIONAL AIRPORT; Airport to Stay Shut for Now; Some Urge Permanent Move

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport would have to be closed indefinitely because of its proximity to the seats of government, and some lawmakers and aviation authorities said it should be shut down permanently.

''Given the risks that exist, and the flight paths' being right near the Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol building, it seems to me a necessity to close National Airport for a period,'' Mr. Rumsfeld said at a news conference.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said the airport will remain closed for the time being; airlines were being allowed to fly the empty jets out during limited hours today, with minimal crews, under tight security. That operation was expected to continue on Monday.

Many members of Congress are used to driving just 15 minutes to the airport, where they have a reserved parking lot, and there is likely to be some pressure to reopen it. ''I don't think that anything that happened the other day changes the long-term viability of that airport,'' Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the Democratic leader, said in an interview.

But Representative Porter J. Goss of Florida, a Republican who is chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Representative John Cooksey, a Louisiana Republican who is a pilot, told reporters that the airport might have to be shut down permanently because of the security risk.

David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, which represents frequent travelers, has long called for the airport to be closed. ''You envision some airplane coming in and out of National Airport just veering off at some point and crashing into the White House or the Capitol,'' Mr. Stempler said in an interview.

Permanently closing the airport would be a blow to the city's economy. Some airline executives fear that US Airways, which is by far the largest carrier at the airport, would be forced out of business.

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Rakesh Gangwal, the chief executive of US Airways, told the airline's major unions this morning that he expected National Airport to be closed for 15 days. He said the airline planned to cut 20 to 25 percent of its schedule, assuming that the airport reopened.

Since the attacks, new security measures have been imposed in an effort to help protect the airport. One is putting armed, undercover marshals on flights, a step that is already being implemented selectively around the country, the aviation agency said. The agency said it was asking the Defense Department if other ''highly trained agents'' might be put on flights.

Meanwhile, fighter planes continue to patrol the airspace around Washington and are on 15-minute alert elsewhere around the country, ready to intercept planes that deviate from their flight plans.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said today that if National Airport opened soon, planes might be allowed only to arrive from the south and depart toward the south, a proposal that would cut capacity and present other problems. Usually, planes arrive from the south and depart to the north, or vice versa, depending partly on wind direction.

The rest of the country's commercial airports had been reopened by today, and at midday about 4,800 planes were aloft, two-thirds of normal Sunday traffic.